Smart materials: applications of nanotechnology in drug delivery and drug targeting

This presentation will give an overview of the current use of nanoparticles as drug carriers and will discuss their future use in drug targeting and drug delivery of active molecules. Today's progress in cell biology and biotechnology enables scientists to synthesize highly active molecules to target specific intra-cellular receptors. The clinical use of such molecules is often very limited because of their peptide or oligonucleotide nature. They are highly active in vitro in isolated cell systems, but a short half-life or limited cell uptake in vivo prevent their clinical use. To overcome the limitations in cellular uptake of highly active molecules, the use of nano-sized carriers is the focus of modern drug delivery strategies. The utilization of such particles as drug targeting vectors is an emerging field of pharmaceutical sciences.